Ed Ruscha was born on December 16, 1937, in Omaha, Nebraska. His family moved to Oklahoma City in 1941. In 1956, Ruscha moved to Los Angeles, where he attended Chouinard Art Institute, from which he graduated in 1960.

Ruscha’s early paintings attracted notice as part of the Pop art movement of the 1960s; his art also has antecedents in Dada, Surrealism, and Abstract Expressionism, and would be central to Conceptual art. His work includes paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, artist’s books, and films, and is in the collections of major national and international museums.